Evolution of Communication and the Era of Texting

Recently I can’t help but notice the way communication and the culture behind it has changed. There is no doubt that the internet and telecom era has revolutionized the way we communicate but much like with any large advance it may be useful to reflect on how it has evolved.

Long ago people met with one another face to face or relied on mail to communicate with each another. Early mail taken by horseback took a very long time to get to its recipient. The investment in time and effort put into a letter was substantial. Time meant you had to carefully think about what you were going to say. In many cases this may be the only correspondence between you and a loved one. Times of war meant that letters were the only means of connection to a world beyond the hell of the battlefield. They were the lifeblood of many.

With the modern era came the advent of telegraphs and eventually the telephone which allowed us to talk to one another. Distance in a sense became shorter. We wouldn’t have to wait days, weeks, or months to correspond with someone. Because of the ease of use the investment became less, there was not so much of a time commitment, communication was realtime, but nonetheless it still took courage for instance to call someone you had a romantic interest in (it still is).

With the advent of the internet, email let the world send messages in vast numbers and with minimal effort. Email made it convenient for people to send small messages rather than call. It lead to more efficiency. The immediacy of the ability to send messages meant less investment had to be put in. If your message gets sent instantly and if you make a mistake a followup one could be sent.

Cellular telephones made it so we could always be on the grid. It allowed business to conduct business cheaper, it allowed parents to keep a closer watch on their kids, it allowed people to call for help in emergencies. As the telecom era matured texting evolved. Now not only could messages be sent in an instant to a network of people seemingly wired in at virtually all times. The modes of communication were diversified but with these new modes of communication the investment was even lower. Messages were condensed. Priority on spelling and composition was reduced to abbreviations. Why call when you could text and plan things quicker without the hassle and awkwardness of engaging in a conversation? Emotion started being conveyed with emoticons a series of symbols designed to put some humanness to the short code-like language of texting. Everything from anger, sadness, or sarcasm was given a symbol things we used to have to rely on our words and expressions to rely on (not that we don’t actually see each other these days but we don’t “have” to as much).

The phenomenon of texting was not just limited to the Western world. In the middle east, as I saw, young people texted each other jokes and political satire that would otherwise be too risky to say out loud on the phone. One can’t go anywhere these days without seeing someone on a cellphone texting or chatting with someone. Instant gratification. It is hard to argue how this has not improved our way of life. Indeed, how did we ever live without cell phones?!

The answer is we did pretty well. Sure it was hard to coordinate things and it lead to many boring car rides but that time was filled doing other things: thinking, relaxing, stressing that the person you coordinate with got the right message. Instead of the constant ability to change plans, the plans had to be well thought out planning. There were backup plans, if you didn’t make it by this hour do this or that. It was certainly less convenient but involved more thought and planning. It also seemed that without the constant connectedness we were more free to observe the world around us. The instant gratification of texting or calling meant little thought had to be put into communicating versus back in the old days when old fashion letters were written by hand their delivery uncertain. The abbreviated composition/pseudo language of texting is consistent with the fast paced, shortening attention span of society. It is more convenient to text someone using shortcuts than actually having to talk to someone.

But I wonder what long term effect this ultra fast paced instant gratification communication will have on people. People will always meet, and talk, and diversified modes of communication can enrich our lives, but more and more I see people texting to communicate. People are asking each other out on text, flirting on text, having heated arguments on text. These were things that were once done in person or on the phone but now have evolved. I find it hard to understand how any meaningful communication in an argument can come from the abbreviated lexicon of texting. Maybe that is why we have such abbreviated news that fails to give the complexities of the real story. Ironically those same brief news clips that are sent to our phones are seen as progress, easy to digest bits of information digested by the media. Why, for instance, read a news paper when you can get a text message with the latest headlines. Who has time for all that? Perhaps I am old fashioned but how romantic is texting someone out on a date? Sure it isn’t the majority of people but looking around it is certainly moving in that direction. It is more convenient and less stressful to text but has motive to communicate boiled down to convenience and trying to minimize “danger.” It is not difficult to see a cynic calling such trends selfishness and cowardice (a lack of courage to fully interact with one another). How much more will our communication evolve? Will texting some day be as arcane as sending letters? While I engage in communication in all forms I think I’m going to try to rely less on texting and more on actually calling and meeting with people. When I reflect back, I have fonder memories of a good conversation than a text that made me “lol.”